Flood Risk Management

Responsibility for flood risk management in the United States is a shared responsibility between multiple Federal, State, and local government agencies with a complex set of programs and authorities. Nationally, both the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have programs to assist states and communities in reducing flood damages and promoting sound flood risk management. The authority to determine how land is used in floodplains and to enforce flood-wise requirements is entirely the responsibility of state and local government. Floodplain management choices made by state and local officials, in turn, impact the effectiveness of federal programs to mitigate flood risk and the performance of federal flood damage reduction infrastructure. One key challenge is to ensure that as the public and government leaders make flood risk management decisions, they integrate environmental, social, and economic factors and consider all available tools to improve public safety. Importantly, the public must be educated both as to the risks they face and actions they can take to reduce their risks. Because of this complex arrangement of responsibilities, only a life-cycle, comprehensive and collaborative systems approach will enable communities to sustain an effective reduction of risks from flooding.